Certainly the greatest emotional impact the film could have had. It also reinforced for me what a tremendous accomplishment for Austin to capture even a fraction of Presley’s essence, which he did admirably. The continuing success has me hopeful that Baz’s film will do more to restore Elvis’ legacy with the public than any other single movie, documentary, or book.
It's not going to happen. For one, it's obvious this was a labor of love by Baz and his team. Nobody tells him what to direct, he creates and produces his own projects. He's only made six feature films, and they're all unique. Strictly Ballroom (1992) Romeo + Juliet (1996) Moulin Rouge (2001) Australia (2008) The Great Gatsby (2013) Elvis (2022) As is obvious from the gaps between films, it takes him a long time to decide upon a project and create it. And none of these have much in common with any of the others, other than his and his collaborator Catherine Martin's rather rococo style (which was a perfect match for this film.) The closest he's come to a "biopic" was the TV series he produced called The Get Down, which was actually a 12 episode series about the birth of hip hop and rap with a mixture of genuine people and fictional ones.
It may be a bizarre thing to say, but we owe much of the success of this film to COVID-19. He started making the film before the pandemic, and one of his stars, Tom Hanks, got deathly ill with the virus in the first wave. So everything had to stop while the rest of the world stopped and Tom and his wife Rita Wilson recovered. From what I understand, Baz and Catherine Martin relocated to Memphis during the pandemic, and spent time going through the archives and talking to people who knew Elvis. What's more, they found people like Sam Bell, who were able to give a fresh perspective on a young white boy growing up in a Black neighborhood and how that impacted him. Baz wound up rewriting his script, and created a very different film then we were going to get originally.
Yes, they started shooting in January 2020, then had to shut down on March of 2020. They didn't pick up again until late September, so that's more than 5 months of downtime. I'd bet they did have time to do a lot of revisions, and it could well be a different film than what they started out to do. I just started re-reading Peter Guarlnick's Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (basically his life from the 1940s through March of 1960, when he got out of the Army). All I can think of are the lost opportunities and misconceptions in the film, because there's a lot that got left out. And the over-emphasis on Col. Tom Parker continues to bother me. As I've said before, you get a celebrity as complex as Presley, you can't tell his entire life story in 2 hours or 3 hours... it'd take at least 10-12 hours, and even then, I'm not sure there's an audience for it.
I found this on YouTube which gives a nice overview of many of the on-screen adaptations of Elvis’ life. There’s a couple I forgot about.
You are absolutely correct my friend. Austin Butler also made the decision to just stay in Australia during the shutdown and completely immerse himself in all things Elvis related. Every single aspect of Elvis was covered, from his entire music catalogue, which Austin listened to from start to finish, to watching all of the video footage of Elvis. I don't think he could have completely transformed himself as Elvis without this unprecedented commitment to the role.
What a great video and thanks for posting it. I got a kick out of seeing Michael Bublé's imitation once again and the scene from True Romance, which is one of my very favorite movies, written by Quentin Tarantino no less, who we all know is a big Elvis fan. I just read a concert review of Michael's show in Florida and he mentions the new Elvis movie and that fact that Elvis is one of his idols. He also does a whole segment of Elvis songs and straps on a guitar and sings One Night (With You). He also sang Fever with the orchestra. When I saw him in Las Vegas in April of this year, Michael sang Fever and Viva Las Vegas (good choice for that venue). I have never seen Michale play guitar in concert, so that show in Florida would have been neat one to see. I know he can also play the piano as well, just like Elvis.
I'm reading backwards through the thread - haven't received any updates for a while now - so it might have been mentioned, but in case it hasn't... Elvis left us 45 years ago today
If I hadn't seen the film 3 days ago, I would definitely be in the theater tonight. Last time I saw it, there were some folks who were old enough to have been first generation fans in the audience. I suspect experiencing the Unchained Melody scene with these folks would be very powerful, and I haven't had a good cry in a while. I'm so glad that this film has been successful enough to still be in the theater on this sad anniversary.
Agreed. Might be by (Baz's) design or serendipity, but it's great to know that Elvis is being celebrated today with this wonderful, wonderful film.
I just found this video that was posted in July of Michael Bublé talking about the Elvis movie and singing One Night. He had not seen the movie at this point, but he asked the audience if any of them have seen it and many fans yelled out, "yes!" Apparently, this was a private show of some sort in Kingston and he has a much smaller band set-up than usual. It is also the very first time he has played the guitar on stage. Keep in mind, this is amateur footage, so the sound isn't fantastic, but I think he does a great job on one of my very favorite Elvis songs, One Night (With You).
On this day in history, August 16, American legends Aretha Franklin, Babe Ruth and Elvis Presley died
I hear you. I've seen it 5 times in the theatres. Today I'm just listening to my Elvis Spotify playlists.
Just a reminder, if you're an AMC Stubs member, tickets for all shows on Tuesday are only $5. I'm not employed by AMC, I'm just a satisfied and very frequent customer.
Me too. In my wildest dreams I could not have envisioned this level of success for an Elvis biopic in 2022. Keep in mind I am an Elvis superfan and an optimist by nature. It really speaks to the quality of the product and the lasting power of Elvis Presley. Just put Elvis in front of people's eyes and into their ears. He sells himself. As his grave marker states; "he was a precious gift from God".
I like that sentiment quite a lot, but really like what that reviewer of MSG said - a ‘prince from another planet.’
That's a great moniker. He really did seem as if he was not one of us. Especially his hair. Man, did that dude get blessed with a head of hair.
He got blessed with more than that .. he was beautiful, talented, graceful and humble (to just name a few things) .. that's saying a lot for a Super Star, especially the last two observations.
